Days before Germany’s federal elections, Facebook took what it called an unprecedented step: the removal of a series of accounts that worked together to spread COVID-19 misinformation and encourage violent responses to COVID restrictions. The crackdown, announced Sept. 16, was the first use...

The U.N. special envoy for Syria announced Tuesday that invitations have been issued for a sixth meeting of the committee charged with producing a new constitution for war-torn Syria in October. After the failure of the five previous meetings of Syrian government, opposition and civil...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A computer-graphic-soaked advertisement featuring Australian actor and Hollywood heartthrob Chris Hemsworth beckons the world to Dubai's upcoming Expo 2020, promising a “world of pure imagination” as children without facemasks race across a futuristic carnival...

In northern Syria, a decade of war has left water and sanitation infrastructure damaged and neglected. More than three million people—many of whom have already been displaced from their homes by conflict—now face a water crisis that has dire health consequences. “Even when water is available...

Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SMDK) head Salim al-Muslat on Sunday said that the United States must pressure the Bashar Assad regime to accept a political transition in the war-torn country. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), al-Muslat said: “The coalition believes...

Syria's top diplomat on Monday said his country's doors are open for the safe return of refugees, and accused Western nations of taking advantage of the suffering of Syrians while pretending to care for their well-being. "We have made it clear that Syria's doors are wide open for the safe...

Turkey sent reinforcements to the last rebel-held enclave in northwestern Syria as Russia stepped up air strikes there on Sunday, several sources said, three days before leaders Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan are due to meet for talks. Residents as well as opposition and military sources...

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of British gas stations ran dry Sunday, an industry group said, as motorists scrambled to fill up amid a supply disruption due to a shortage of truck drivers. The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents almost 5,500 independent outlets, said about two-thirds of...

Tariq Hassan Alour, Syrian refugee in Germany and former agent in the Syrian security services, has illegally entered Syria to meet officers in the Air Force Intelligence, a well-informed source told Zaman Al-Wasl Sunday. His identity was revealed by Zaman al-Wasl in June 2020. ...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's center-left Social Democrats were locked in a very close race Sunday with outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc in the country's parliamentary election, a vote that will determine who succeeds the long-time leader after 16 years in power, exit polls showed. Officials...

Tunisian Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi has met with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday. Jerandi and Mekdad reviewed bilateral relations, the recent...

 Warplanes attacked Turkey-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria on Sunday, killing and wounding about 20, an opposition war monitor and pro-regime media said. The airstrike struck a position in an area near the town of Afrin. It came amid increasing tensions between regime...

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s president has said he would consider buying a second Russian missile system in defiance of strong objections by the United States. In an interview with American broadcaster CBS News, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would have to decide its defense systems...

BERLIN (AP) — German voters are choosing a new parliament in an election that will determine who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel after her 16 years at the helm of Europe's biggest economy. Polls point to a very close race Sunday between Merkel's center-right Union bloc, with state governor...

 A Syrian man has died after swallowing gasoline he was siphoning out of his vehicle’s tank with a plastic tube, Lebanon’s national news agency reported Saturday. Lebanon is witnessing a paralyzing fuel shortage that has driven the public to hoard gasoline and resort to black-market...

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A vehicle laden with explosives rammed into cars and trucks at a checkpoint leading to the entrance of the Presidential Palace in Somalia, killing at least eight people, police said Saturday. The checkpoint is the one used by Somalia’s president and prime minister...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban hanged a dead body from a crane in the main square of Herat city in western Afghanistan, a witness said Saturday, in a gruesome display that signaled a return to some of the Taliban's methods of the past. Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the...

 Fatima Alzahra Shon thinks neighbors attacked her and her son in their Istanbul apartment building because she is Syrian. The 32-year-old refugee from Aleppo was confronted on Sept. 1 by a Turkish woman who asked her what she was doing in “our” country. Shon replied, “Who are you to...

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC) released its twelfth annual report on monitoring the use of cluster weapons worldwide. The CMC is a global civil society campaign working to eradicate cluster munitions, prevent further casualties and put an end...

 The United Nations human rights chief said Friday that her office has documented the deaths of 350,209 people — civilians and combatants — in Syria’s civil war over the last decade, while admitting the real number for those killed in the conflict is almost certainly far higher....